Pennsylvania Voter ID Case Could Upend GOP War On Voters In Swing State
http://www.alternet.org/pennsylvania-voter-id-case-could-upend-gop-war-voters-swing-state
When the dust settles after the November election and all sides in 2012’s voting wars look back, a lawsuit now before a Pennsylvania court over that state’s harsh new voter ID law may be a key turning point in a season where civil rights advocates and the Justice Department turned back the GOP’s latest voter suppression efforts.
The case brought by a coalition of voting rights groups—led by the American Civil Liberties Association’s Pennsylvania chapter—is doing several things in court that were not done four years ago, when liberal civil rights groups failed to stop Indiana’s new voter ID law before the U.S. Supreme Court.
First, the ACLU-PA put into evidence testimony from real people about real-life circumstances attesting to the hardship of meeting the new ID law—which wasn’t done before the Supreme Court in Indiana, where that court found no-one had been harmed because that law had not yet taken effect. In the Harrisburg court, the judge heard a handful of elderly people, newly eligible voters who are disabled and registered voters without drivers’ licenses, say why they could not obtain the newly required IDs. They lacked a mix of original documents, transportation to get it, time to get reissued birth certificates, and funds to get paperwork that is a precursor to a state photo ID card.
Moreover, the testimony by Pennsylvania state officials defending their new voter ID law has been like a scene from an existential novel about kangaroo courts under Communism. Before the trial started, the state’s attorneys agreed in a stipulation that nobody had been found in the state to be impersonating other voters—the GOP’s political ‘justification’ when adopting the new ID law. They also said in that stipulation that they did not have any "direct personal knowledge" of voter fraud elsewhere. (That was followed by video-taped statements by Pennsylvania’s Senate Republican leader bragging the law would help Romney win).
= new reply since forum marked as read
Smart, efficient people. They called me about using my dad as one of the cases involved, but when they found out he has been voting absentee because he is too disabled to sit long enough to go to DMV for a new photo ID, they said "thanks, but we need folks who don't vote absentee". The problem is that if this goes through, the Republicans will crack down on absentee next (they have stated that they see it as a "loophole"
and it will be too late to do anything about it, because the strict photo ID regulations will be considered settled law.
Pennsylvanians - be aware. They will be challenging ANY difference between your license and your voter registration in an effort to gum up the works and hold down turnout.
Just in case this isn't settled our way - be sure to 1) make sure your registration matches and 2) get absentee ballots for everyone you know who might have a problem with their ID. The Republicans flood thier voters with absentee ballots for every election - we need to do it this time.
(If it passes, I'll be looking forward to seeing which Republicans will be manning the polling places in North Philadelphia and telling registered voters in those precincts that they cannot vote to re-elect our President. That should be interesting to watch.)
